Afterimage
by BCorgs
Summary: After his regeneration, something happened... But a new adventure is here for the Tenth Doctor! Chapter uploads every other day!
1. Chapter I

Afterimage  
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction  
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this (for ) will be at the start of each chapter

Chapter I: The Doctor Reborn

"I don't want to go."  
The final words of the Tenth Doctor echoed throughout the TARDIS Control Room. He knew what was about to happen, this time, powerless to stop it. He looked around, one last time, with his own eyes, and looked at his body, admiring its form and structure, knowing that when next he looked, a new pair of eyes would be looking at a new man's body. Same soul, different body. The Doctor drew one last sigh, and shed a tear. Then it began. His regeneration.  
Golden energy escaped the confines of his body, tearing through every limb, every muscle and bone, every organ, every single cell in his body, burning, burning and reforming. Into something that he could never be. Into a Time Lord reborn. And just as it always had, it hurt. The Tenth Doctor looked up one more time, and let go. And then he was gone.  
[Until a later point, our main character is a reborn Doctor in the shape of the Tenth, as a human called John Smith or the Afterimage]

John Smith woke up in a parking lot, just outside of London, not far from Lauriston Gardens. "Ugh. What happened? Oh, my head!" said Smith. He had been down the pub, but had left early and then... something. He picked himself up off of the ground and walked home to his flat in Central London. The next morning, on his way to work, he had decided to wear a special brown suit, and a long, flowing jacket. That morning, a happy married couple, by the names of Martha and Mickey Smith were walking by. They happened by Mr. Smith, and called out, "Doctor!" In surprise, Smith turned around, and found eyes of strangers, though to them, his eyes were bright as the moon.  
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" said Smith.  
"Of course you know us you old twit!" said Martha, the love of her Doctor in her eyes as always before.  
"Doctor, do really not recognize us? You saw us maybe a week ago!" said Mickey.  
"No, I have never, to my recalling, met either of you." said Smith  
The shock was evident on both of their faces and they demanded and begged him to come with them. Being a fairly easy to persuade man, he reluctantly agreed.  
Martha insisted to Smith that he was a Time Lord, and that she demanded to know where his special watch was. He allowed her to search him and that there was no watch. Eventually, she pulled up the UNIT file on the Doctor and showed him everything, including the numerous pictures of someone who seemed to be him.  
"But that's not me. That's some man who looks remarkably like me."  
"That's you. That is and will always be you! The man who showed the both us the wonders of the universe in all its majesty."  
John had had enough and went home, fed up with this Doctor business.  
"Doctor who, anyhow? No ones just 'The Doctor'." Thought John.  
Distraught, Mickey had tried to follow him and talk with him alone, less forcefully, but ended up getting lost. Martha, in a similar state, had dived into her work, ensuring everything for the defenses of the planet from hostiles was active. Eventually, she checked her e-mail and she found a message from the phone she had given the Doctor! She hadn't been able to check her email for most of the day, and she found the email had come in at about 12:30 that afternoon.  
[This is the time I estimate the Doctor was at the control screen in the TARDIS, prior to his regeneration in 2005 and his subsequent crashing]

The email read:  
Hello Martha. I'm afraid my time has at long last come. I have one more secret to tell you, the final secret of the Time Lords, and it may save them. With my final hours, I have defeated the Master (again), the War-Obsessed Time Lords and, in sacrificing myself, saved the life of Wilfred Mott, the grandfather of Donna Noble. Time Lords have a program called an Afterimage, where, upon regeneration, a human form of that Time Lord is created and sent to Earth at a preselected point. I will be sent to your time, and you may have, by chance, run into me already. Now, Donna, as you know, had to have her memory wiped due to her absorption of a Time Lord Consciousness. The beauty of an Afterimage, is that it has partial Time Lord Consciousness and half-human, half-Time Lord DNA.  
So the Afterimage can absorb the Consciousness within Donna and restore both the memories of and the abilities of myself in another version of me. And Donna can remember, like she deserves to. Then, I can fuse with my meta-crisis form to create an entirely new Time Lord, with the same appearance and memories, but a new a regeneration cycle. I also gave him a special gift that Donna figured out how to use for us. Once she remembers, it can be used.  
To travel between universes, I have a message which has been encoded in Gallifreyan below:

[this was a pic of circular Gallifreyan that read, "Void External Field Manipulator"]

You must find and capture my Afterimage, and use Donna to restore my Time Lord consciousness. I know this must be hard for you, but I hope once I can return, that it will become easier. Martha, I do and I have always loved you. You are like a _\~,]{ to me. Please know that I care deeply about you and will always care. The Woman Who Walked The Earth, I need your help once again.  
Sincerely,

[this was a pic of circular Gallifreyan that read, "The Doctor"]

Martha would rather die than not find the Doctor's Afterimage again and to restore him as the Doctor. Her Doctor.  
Wilf was watching some telly, relaxing as he would in old age. They had recently all moved from the house in Chiswick to the old Naismith Mansion, on account of Donna's winning the lottery. They had had the place reworked, in order to get rid of the alarming feeling about the place that Wilf had explained in secret to Sylvia.  
Wilf had converted the science chamber where the Doctor had saved him from radiation poisoning, into a rather nice bedroom. The feeling of duty was sense that had stayed in the room would never fade for him. Every night he dreamed of the Doctor, and sacrifice he had made. Every night, not just for him, but for Donna, he dreamed of him and wished for him to come again. Wilfred longed to hear that sound agin, that familiar whooshing. More than anything, he wished that he and Donna could remember together. But then, she would die.  
_

Martha had found Mickey the night before, unsuccessful in the search for the Doctor's Afterimage. They had rested and in the morning, endeavored to find Wilfred Mott, and then the Afterimage, and use Donna's Time Lord conscious to restore him. So she found where Wilfred lived, and payed a visit to the Temple-Noble Mansion. When they knocked, Wilf answered the door.  
"Hello there. May ask, what would you like?" Wilf asked.  
"Mr. Mott," said Martha, "My name is Martha. Like your granddaughter, I was a companion to the Doctor."  
"After what happened, we don't speak that name here."  
"Please, sir, we've found a way to let her have her memory back."  
"You should come inside, we can all talk in my room."  
The three of them went inside, and Martha showed Wilf the email that the Doctor had sent her. They discussed what they should do, and decided to invite Shaun in to dicuss as well.  
"Shaun, if there was... a portion of Donna's life, that she didn't know about, that she, had to forget, would you want her to remember?" said his grandfather-in-law.  
"I mean, it's her life. I can't just choose for her." said Shaun.  
"It has to be you. If we remind her of this, and she remembers, before we do this, she will burn up and die. This has to be you." said Martha.  
"It is her life. And she deserves to remember. We should let her remember herself." Shaun words had finality about them.  
"Alright. We bring the Afterimage of the Doctor here, and we let him live. We let Donna remember her past. We let everything become how it should have been," said Wilf.  
They all seemed satisfied in one way or another with the result of the conference. That evening, the Smith's found themselves once again searching for the Afterimage. In the end, he came to those he had declared a hatred for earlier.  
Smith approached them, and said, "Please. You have to help me. Flashes are going through my mind, and I can't remember who I am, and please, please. I NEED YOUR HELP." The scream echoed through even the noisy streets, confused, angry and desperate, to understand what had happened.  
"We have a friend who can explain better, but, you are a being created within the last week. You are what's called an Afterimage of a Time Lord, which is a human being containing Time Lord, that's the Doctor's native species, DNA. Basically, you're a human with a temporal and mental link to this Time Lord, called the Doctor," Mickey said, "But if you come with us, if you're willing to give up this empty shadow life of John Smith, a life that you dreamed up, then you can remember and understand."  
"Give up what, exactly? I can't remember anything before the day I met the two of you, and the flashes are a waking nightmare. I'd give up almost anything to stop them," said the Afterimage.  
"But what are these flashes, though? The Doctor never mentioned them in his email. Can you describe what you see when they happen?" Martha asked.  
"I can try. Basically, they started after I left your flat, when you first outright told me I was this Doctor. From there, I had these flashes, like flashbacks or memories, but they feel current. First there was a glowing light, fading into a man, with raggedy clothes and hippy hair, controlling some... strange vessel, laughing, and yelling, 'Geronimo!'  
Then, this vessel, which looked like... a... an old phone box, was on fire, and flying and crashing. It flew past Big Ben, almost hitting it and then flew out of view."  
"But that's the TARDIS! My god, it has to be! Where was it going, John? Where?" Martha begged to know. " John, John please... JoHn... jOhn... john..."  
_

John Smith began another flash, and heard a Raggedy Man, say, "Hey there buddy. It's me, you! Anyways, now you have to go with them. Find Donna. Absorb her Time Lord Consciousness. Alright? Then, either the flashes will stop or, you can escape them, by going to a place that you'll remember, Pete's World. Listen, sorry, got to go, urgent business on this end. Good luck, Doctor!"  
_

John woke up in the Naismith mansion. Dazed and confused he looked around the room. "Like that vessel, what had Martha called it? Oh, yes, the TARDIS. Both places seem familiar," thought John.  
"Hel-" His greeting was quickly muffled and he heard a conversation just outside the door.  
"Donna, sweetheart, this isn't easy for me to tell you, but, you have a sort of amnesia. There's a part of your life, a very small, but important part of it that you can't remember, and for good reason, so focus on me," rang another familiar voice, "Shaun said that if you remember or not, he's okay with your choice. It will change your life, so please, think about it."  
A voice John had heard again spoke, "Grandad, what do you think? I know that it's my choice and my memories, but I need your thoughts, too."  
"I think, personally, if I was you, that I'd like to remember." Wilf said to Donna.  
"Alright. Let's do this then."  
"Now, before we rush in there, we need you to put on a blindfold, because, before this process takes place, if you see him and remember him, you will burn up and die. So please, please. Let's be careful."  
The pair entered the room, and John was asked to stand up, and put his hands on Donna's temples. From there, memories began to surge, racing through John's mind, as the Time Lord half of Donna came to her mind's forefront, and then out into John... Into the Doctor. When the consciousness of a Time Lord was safely removed, the half Doctor restored Donna's memories through physic inversion of hippocampus neurons, basically reversing the process he had gone through to lock them.  
"So...many...memories...So...much...pain...andloveandlossandohmygod...STOPITITHURTS!" The half Doctor screamed, fainting, fading... away.

[from here to a yet later point, the protagonist is called the half Doctor]

Donna woke up, throughly confused.  
"Grandad! Where's Shaun, and Mum and... Oh my god its him! But why can I remember him! Wait... Sorry, the memories are all a bit scrambled. It's like, I have all these memories from when I couldn't remember him and then memories from when I can. Think of it like, a bridge over ravine, the bridge connects the points where I couldn't and now can remember him. But I also walked through the ravine and up. So my memory is sort of, confused right now. Hey! Why can't I remember how to do all those things I did? The words are there but to me, they have no meaning."  
"Same old Donna. Even when he left us, you never changed. I'm so glad to see you with us like this again." Wilf began to cry.  
Without another word, the team moved the half Doctor to a bed in the mansion, and waited for him to wake up.  
When he woke up, the half Doctor was a bit removed from his genial, lively self. The escape from death, that had been so lucky to succeed, took a lot out of him.  
He had noticed Martha watching him sleep several times now. Every so often he'd wake up for a few moments, almost to reassure himself that he was still alive.  
He had liked watching Martha. She reminded him of a sister, so devoted to keeping everyone safe and happy. But she was also a friend and a caring companion. He hoped she would accept his offer.


	2. Chapter II

Afterimage  
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction  
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this will be at the start of each chapter.

Chapter II: A Journey Across the Void

Across a world, beyond the reach of the Doctor's time and space, the Meta-Crisis Doctor awoke, in a fierce sweat. He had felt a burning. He felt the start of a process familiar, but impossible for him: regeneration. Somewhere, a universe away, the Doctor was regenerating. He had shot up, ripe with a burning pain he did not feel, but rather envisioned. Rose shot up beside him, not speaking, but with the obvious question in her eyes.  
"I'm fine," he said, "It's just... he's entering full regeneration. He's already past the phase shift. Our Doctor is gone."  
"Hey, it's okay. It's us, you and me. You're my Doctor, this world's Doctor. And I love you for it," said Rose.  
"There's something I never told you Rose, that the Doctor and I never told anyone. During the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords needed an edge, something to help stand up to the Daleks. So they created a special program, the Afterimage program. It had all living Time Lords store a copy of their consciousness in a special device capable of retrieving them when necessary. They also injected all of us with a special, completely permanent serum, that created human forms of us after we would regenerate. Then, that human would be collected, and infused with a Time Lord Consciousness, creating a phenomenon similar to myself. They couldn't regenerate, didn't have two hearts, that type of thing. The fact that I was stable was at all was a miracle, because I was formed from pure human DNA and the Afterimages were formed from specialized Human-Time Lord DNA, to ensure stability. Anyways, I think, that the Doctor, our Doctor, is going to try to use Donna's Time Lord Consciousness to reform himself. Then, he could, feasibly, travel here, to us."  
"How'd you mean, use Donna's Time Lord Consciousness? That's her's, isn't it?" said Rose.  
"Yes and no. What he and I knew was that Donna wasn't stable. A pre-existing human with a Time Lord brain? She was going to burn up, but he saved her. At a cost. He used physic reversion of hippocampus neurons, causing her to forget him and every connection to the separate Time Lord brain that would have forced her to burn up and die. But now, she can come back. Now, they both can return." said the Meta-Crisis Doctor.  
"That's horrible! Amazing,she can come back, but horrible!" said Rose, not daring to go over a whisper.  
The two of them, instead of talking or thinking, or even dreaming, stared into each other's eyes.  
_

When the half Doctor woke up again, Martha had left the room. He quietly stood up, discovering himself in a pair of nighties (coincidentally similar to the pair he had been in just after regenerating from his ninth incarnation) and realized this was room where he had been when Wilf and himself had vanquished the Time Lords, where he had met his ultimate demise, in allowing Wilf to live.  
"Good on them. Let's see... They invested the money very wisely, made back billions, bought this place and have been mainly saving, but doing a bit of splurging. The thought of bringing them an Ood crossed his mind, but then he realized, he didn't have the TARDIS!  
"We have the plans for that, I suppose," thought the half Doctor.  
He decided to leave the room and wander around the former Naismith Mansion. Since he had last been acquainted with the residence, it had improved considerably. The Temple-Noble family had given the place a simple, but still beautiful, environment and a lovely feeling compared to the cold emptiness that had pierced the room before.  
"It looks a lot better than before," his voice rang out, "I think it adds a sense of honour to the place."  
Wilf nodded, pleased that his choices had sustained such a reaction among people. The rest of them, who had been taking turns on watch for him and had fallen asleep waiting, woke suddenly, all with grins on their faces.  
"So, Doctor, what is is that you want to do?" said Donna, who was simply happy to be with the Doctor again.  
"We, are going to reopen the way to Pete's World." The half Doctor was calm and collected, but also clearly ecstatic.  
"Pete's World? What's that planet?" asked Martha.  
"Name of the parallel world that Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor are trapped in. We had collectively decided on it in the midst of the Battle Of Canary Wharf."  
"Always that Rose with you isn't it? Now that there's another regenerated Doctor out there, you can focus only on her." Martha's tone was highly judgmental.  
"We left a TARDIS piece with them and I have a greater plan in motion, to gift that world with a true Time Lord, and to save them from threats that would burn them. This isn't all motivated by selfish desires." The half Doctor retorted.  
After what to the half Doctor seemed an intensely uncomfortable silence around the room, he decided to pipe up and said, "Can you get me that email transcript again, Martha?"  
Curtly and rather rudely, she replied, "Yeah, sure, give me a moment."  
She pulled the email up on the the projector screen they had since set up.  
"Alright, so, scroll down please, right... there. This is how we are going to Pete's World," The half Doctor pointed at the Gallifreyan writing, "We use this, a Void Manipulation inverter to cross the Void unharmed, and reenter that world safely, at the dimension's weakest point, Bad Wolf Bay. From there we journey to wherever their family is and go from there."  
Sadly, the half Doctor had few of the necessary parts to build the Void Manipulation Inverter, as he did not have the TARDIS. Luckily, he had kept the parts necessary to build a sonic screwdriver within the base spawn portion of his unique Afterimage program, so he quickly assembled a sonic to assist in the development of the necessary parts.  
After a brief call to explain everything to Captain Jack, he was more than happy in assisting them. Torchwood Three had recently disbanded, but Jack still inhabited their old base at Cardiff. Using remnants of alien tech, the device was easily built. Jack offered to hold open the Caridiff Rift, but the Cardiff Rift was too unstable for the half Doctor to use for travel purposes.  
"I just don't feel safe with all these people with me. If I was alone, then I might try, but with company? We should go a weaker, more stable dimensional point." said the half Doctor.  
"Ok, but where should you go? I mean, Cardiff is one of the weakest places, dimensionally, that I can think of." Jack said to him.  
"I was thinking Darlig Ulv Stranden. Better known as: Bad Wolf Bay." The half Doctor smiled.  
"Fitting name, eh?" Jack chuckled.  
"Better than I could have made up. I might've chosen sone crummy romantic name."  
"Can- can I, go with you all?" Jack asked, seemingly nervous.  
"Sure! Having a man who can never die would seem to be handy. I don't think you can make the the full journey though." The half Doctor told him.  
"Why not?!"  
"Jack, please, understand. Because of what Bad Wolf did to you, you are a living fixed point in this world, and you could lose that ability by crossing into a parallel world. But, I have met you in my own past and your, chronological, future. And if you lose your ability and die before then, it would create a great number of paradoxes, for not just us, but for the entire universe. I can't take the risk of you entering into the parallel world." the half Doctor explained.  
"I think I understand. I can help, but I can't reap all the rewards."  
"I'm sorry, but that's how it is."  
"So it is."  
_

An airplane, a bus ride, two hitchhikes and a three-mile walk later, our motley crew of heroes had arrived at their version of Dårlig Ulv Stranden. Using the built sonic, the half Doctor scanned for the place with the least dimensional interference and the clearest gap into the Void and, ultimately, into Pete's World.  
Upon finding the correct location to establish the portal, the half Doctor wanted to ensure that everyone was okay with the journey into what he had, at one point, called "Hell."  
"No objections from me." Martha sounded.  
"No problems here, Boss." Mickey was right behind her.  
"I should be fine." Wilf piped up.  
"Can any of us ever go back, Doctor?" Donna asked, her point obvious.  
"Some of us could go back, yes. The device has an infinite power supply from within the Void and it shields itself from change or damage. All we need is to open the gap, which can be done with any sonic-type device. I just never mentioned it because I'm not planning to go back," the half Doctor said, "There's nothing left there for me, anyways."  
"Couldn't we just use their TARDIS?" asked Donna.  
"They never built it, couldn't remember or understand your instructions. Luckily, I can do both. But no, if we tried to just use the new TARDIS, it could rip a whole in the fabric of both realities, and suck both of the universes into the Void. We are accomplishing the only safe way to traverse the gap between two universes." The half Doctor said.  
Without anymore comments, the half Doctor held up the sonic and whirred it. Slowly, the Void Gap opened, and they entered into this "Hell."

The Void was dark. It was cold, ever-so-cold. Instead of a constant, burn of fire, it was a chilling, freezing burn. The power of the dark and the cold became much more terrifying to them than the burning heat and blinding light. The special Void shielding protected them, but they had yet to pierce even the true surface of the Void.  
[I am assuming that it would take longer to traverse the Void physically, as the Cybermen had done, than using a vessel or dimension jump, like the Daleks and the Doctor, or the humans and the Doctor respectively.]  
After strapping the Void Shield to his back, the half Doctor breathed out a warm glow of energy and with it whispered, "Rose," intending to lead her to bad Wolf Bay, as he had when they had been first separated.  
"Rose," he breathed, "Rose, it's me. From the first universe. I know you must be happy, with the other me. I'm sorry, but I and the rest of the 'Children of Time' are heading to your world. Please, meet us at Bad Wolf Bay, in two days. Dårlig Ulv Stranden, two days. Please Rose, please."  
When he had finished, he got some quizzical looks from the people surrounding him.  
"We have to tell them we're coming, no? It'd be rude if we didn't let them know we'd be there. Oh, the two, days thing. It'll take longer to traverse the Void physically than if we had a vessel or a dimension jump." He told them.  
"Yeah but what's with the golden glowing breath?" asked Martha.  
"Oh, that's regeneration energy, right, just left over from when you regenerated before your Afterimage spawned?" said Donna.  
"Yep. That's what it is." The half Doctor smiled proudly.  
"That's where you can avoid dying, but you become another person, right?" Martha inquired.  
"You got it!" He high-fived her.  
"Ok so we are about-" A large crash interrupted him, and then a scream, "THE DOCTOR IS DETECTED! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!  
"Dalek! Run!" Yelled the half Doctor, "RUN! There could be more of them, RUN!"  
At this, a huge chorus of Daleks cried out, "EXTERMINATE! IT IS THE DOCTOR, EXTERMINATE!" And repeatedly calling for his prompt death. You could see their shimmering outlines against the shield  
The group kept running until the Daleks became a distant buzz. However, soon after the frantic running from the Daleks had stopped, another cry, with a combination of anger and pain rang out, "DELETE. DELETE. Non-upgraded humanoids detected. DELETE."  
If the half Doctor's call to swiftness before was loud and urgent, then this time he was manic and panicking about his cry for them all to flee. The Cybermen weapons were electronically based, making them a genuine danger to the Void Shield's operation. The last thing any of them wanted was to be trapped in, "Hell," with the Daleks and Cybermen.  
The running had both allowed them to escape the bulk of the Daleks and Cybermen, who were still resistant to their imprisonment within the Void, and also allowed them to shave a good portion of time off of their estimated time to arrive in Pete's World. At this distance, only a few renegade Cybermen and Daleks could be vaguely seen, shimmering beyond the Void Shield.  
Seemingly by mutual, non-verbal consent, the group stopped and slept for the "night," deciding to prepare for the final part of their journey when they woke up that following morning. Unable to sleep, Martha and the half Doctor stared up, beyond the Void Shield, gazing into the darkness and space between universes like a night sky.  
"Even if it is Hell, it's kinda beautiful." Martha whispered, careful to not wake up any of their companions.  
"Yeah. If you look right... there, you can see a different world. Somewhere none of us have ever been, no one from our universe. If the Void Shield didn't have a necessary distortion field, I bet we could see many more of them, and they'd be seem like stars." The half Doctor gazed in awe.  
"It's really great to have you back, with us all. I know it won't last, but I'm happy we're here with you." Martha told him.  
He cracked a smile at that, "I'm glad to have all of us here, especially you, Mickey and Donna. I care about you all so much."  
She smiled at that. They looked up, into the vague points of light and energy, a sight that no being had seen with real eyes before them.  
"The legacy this journey will leave would have been legendary among the Time Lords." The half Doctor thought.  
Later, the others had woken up and they had started moving again. The darkness of night never let up. Wilf had inquired whether there was ever any change in this world. It seemed likely that the changes came from excess energy traveling across the universes in an exchange of quantum energies.  
After what seemed like another eternity of wandering through Hell, the Children Of Time and their Doctor found themselves at the boundary of another realm, where a small crack was still visible. Their way into Pete's World. Jack at this point, quietly activated his own Void Shield and bid them all farewell. The Void Shield was moved onto the boundary, and then quietly opened by the half Doctor's sonic, much as he had in their world, and quietly, with no fanfare or proud welcoming party, they became the first physical travelers to step into another world.  
Bad Wolf Bay was eerily silent. Rose, the Meta-Crisis Doctor and her family hadn't come yet, if they would at all. The disappointment was obvious on the half Doctor's face. Their journey would soon truly begin.


	3. Chapter III

Afterimage  
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction  
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this will be at the start of each chapter.

Chapter III: Finding A Red Rose And A Blue Box

The half Doctor and the Children of Time waited, for three hours. It was apparent that she was not coming at any point in the near future. Instead, they managed to walk, something their bodies had become accustomed to, to a distant suburb of Bergen and called three cabs for all of them. All of them could tell the half Doctor was disappointed that Rose hadn't been there when they arrived. Waiting for the cabs, there was little but uninterested chatter and silence. They split the cabs so that the half Doctor was alone. Briefly, he wondered how River was faring, a digital image, trapped in the Library. His mind, despite his best efforts, was entirely fixated on Rose. While he both hoped and thought that Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor were happy together, he wanted to find her again, as she had found him.

_ His Rose. Her Doctor._

He was honestly scared to get to the Powell Estate and see if the Meta-Crisis Doctor would under-go the planned process in his ultimate plan for Pete's World. More importantly to him, would Rose accept this idea? "Why would she?" he thought, gloomily, "Why would she risk giving up a calm stable life for adventure? "Well," he thought himself through the process, "Because she had said that if she could, she'd travel with me, in the TARDIS, forever. Circumstance separated, put us together and then forced me away. But she got to keep a version of me."  
Bitterness had begun to make him angry, when he realized that she had wanted to continue traveling with him, but he made her go with the Meta-Crisis Doctor because he needed watching and because he wanted her to be happy with someone forever, without worrying that he would have to change. He had brought this fate upon himself. He would never blame Rose for his actions.  
The cab pulled up to the Bergen International Airport, which was smaller than one would imagine a central airport in use by multiple nations to be. Still it was more than sufficient to use for him. He quietly texted all his friends, using Martha's phone, [he had incorporated Martha's phone into his Afterimage program] and used that to let them know what gate to meet at after leaving the cabs. Without his psychic paper, he had no way of getting onto the flight without money, something that his human self had only procured a small amount of, and was quickly used getting to Bad Wolf Bay in their original universe. Going against his better judgement, but for both his emotions and current necessities, he soniced an ATM and gathered enough money for all of them to fly to London and still have a fair chunk of change. He did this of course as naturally as possible, making it seem like he had removed a fair bit of money from his own account.  
The half Doctor elected to quietly call Donna, and he got a voicemail, "Hey. Donna. Listen it's me, the Doctor. Sorry if you don't know the number, this Martha's old mobile that she used to call us on the TARDIS before. Anyhow, make sure that the driver takes your cab and the other cab to Gate 20A, there's a flight to London there. Meet me at Gate 20A with the others. Then, we're all gonna go to Flight DY1314, that's the first plane to London from here. Don't worry about money, I got enough money from my bank account for us all. See you soon. Bye!"  
[This flight information is largely real as of 3/14/14 in America, with slight changes as to gate.]

The phone call had set the basics of transportation into place until they arrived at London-Gatwick some, two hours later. The half Doctor purchased all the tickets, having to think through everyone there, "Let's see," he thought,"Me, Donna, Wilf, Martha, Mickey, and Ja- oh no, he left before. So there's five of us all together, six if you count the little one."  
Quietly, he mused to himself if he could get a discount or a child's price for one of the tickets, and then purchased economy-class seating for all five of them who would be present.  
He had easily spotted Martha's pregnancy, the fluctuating hormones, the the general shift in disposition from, seemingly, day to day, and the admittedly odd food cravings (at which he himself expressed a both familiar and unfamiliar feeling). He had specially designed the Void Shield to carefully protect both Martha's genetic code as well as that of the infant's. In taking the infant into account, he had ensured that the infant would not be affected by the possibility of delivery in a parallel world. The half Doctor was happy for Martha and Mickey, and hoped that the kid would be just as strong and brave as their father, and just as strong-willed and brilliant as their mother.  
Eventually, the time for his timid self musings passed, as the other four/five travelers had found him at Gate 20A.  
"Oi Spaceman! Least you could have done was called to tell us where you were!" said Donna.  
"I-I did," said the half Doctor, "check your voicemail!"  
Donna did, and rather embarrassingly for her, the message played out for their little posse to hear.  
"Well how was I supposed to know you even 'ad a phone, eh!" Donna became both irrational and maddeningly cute when she yelled at him in her own way. Shaun was a lucky man.  
The group waited, passing time by making small talk and discussing the wonders of the Void. Eventually, the flight to London was boarding and they all gathered on and sat in seats close to each other. As quietly as he could, the half Doctor confessed to Donna that, "I actually, have never been on an airplane before."  
"Really? Huh? Guess you always had a spacecraft or the TARDIS before. It's like a spaceship, but a bit more bumpy and slower. Also it's kinda less impressive of a view, than the grandiose of space." Donna explained to him.  
"So basically old spacecraft, but in the atmosphere?" He replied.  
"That's where the idea for spacecraft came from." She smiled.  
Martha was talking with Wilf, "So, you fought in the war, but you never really killed anyone or participated in any battles except for the very last one, just before the surrender?"  
"Yep. And, thanks to my own time with the Doctor, I must say, I'm proud of that."  
"Something to be proud of." Mickey quipped.  
"I still feel awful. About what happened in the radiation chamber that day. I doomed him. I killed him." Wilf admitted.  
"Hey, he's back isn't he? Donna got to come back to. And now he gets to see Rose. Because of his plan, you may have done him more good than bad." Martha tried to uplift him.  
"I know now, but before... I sleep, in that room, where it happened. I always want to remember the sacrifice he made. And the duty to him that I owe as a result of it. He didn't just save me, he gave up himself." Wilf began to cry, slowly turning his head towards the window, away from Martha and Mickey.  
The power of such a morally significant figure crying drove their emotions to a point only normally triggered by love. They wanted to weep with him, but couldn't quite find the emotional trigger to do so.  
The trip from the Void had tired them all, and now with the changing time, the fatigue caught up with them and slowly but surely, they all fell into rest.  
After waking up with other passengers to find the attendants attempting to route them all off of the plane, the half Doctor grabbed the money carry-on and the rest of them left with him. After walking through the system of luggage reclaiming with the half Doctor, they all left the airport and caught three cabs, this time equally divided, to the Powell Estate.  
_

_"The Doctor is coming. The Children Of Time shall follow."_  
The Meta-Crisis Doctor awoke to such a thought.  
"Rose..." he thought, "Does Rose know?"  
"Roossee!" he called, all singsongy. "You do know that the Doctor is coming here right?"  
"What are you on about?" she asked him, "You are right here!"  
"No, I mean him. The Doctor from the first universe. He found a way here. It sounded like he at least tried to tell you. From what I can see, they should get here in an hour."  
"He's coming? Here? OH MY GOD! 'If only Mum knew,'" she said, quietly locking her phone, "But we'll have him all to ourselves, Hubby."  
"It looks like he's bringing friends. Uh, Martha, Mickey, Donna and her grandad, Wilfred."  
"Why do you think he came here?" she asked him.  
"I know why, but it's not my place to tell you. He should." He told her, winking.  
Throughout the next hour, she would try to threaten, cloy, bribe and bait him into telling her, to appease her incredible curiosity.  
_

The cabs pulled up to the Powell Estate. The group got out, and converged near the front entrance.  
"What if they don't live here anymore?" asked Mickey. "I mean, they have the mansion."  
"They're here. Time Lords can sense other Time Lords, and half Time Lords can sense other half Time Lords. It's a special ability. They probably decided to live here when they got married, at a guess, and then just adapted to living together, alone." The half Doctor said.  
"Well then, we might as well ring the doorbell, let the know we're here." Donna said.  
"Well, we could just-" The half Doctor was interrupted.  
"Just. Please. Ring. The. Doorbell. Please. Don't. Make. This. Complicated." Donna told him.  
"Alright," he said, "here goes... Where's the ringer?"  
"For God's sake, let me!" Mickey said, ringing the bell.  
A short, curt reply of the Meta-Crisis Doctor's voice said, "Come in."  
They all waked up the staircase and opened the door. The Meta-Crisis Doctor and Rose's flat was small, but large enough for the two of them, and quaint, carefully having reminded the travelers of various planets that Rose had likely travelled to with the Doctor. Even grounded on Earth, none of the former companions had lost their love of the eccentric. The room had been prepared to accommodate extra people, and the kettle was on boil. The Meta-Crisis Doctor was off in the kitchen, preparing the tea and some snacks, and Rose was either in the loo or the bedroom.  
The tension in the room was palpable. Everyone had their own idea as to why that was. Quietly, the Meta-Crisis Doctor brought out the tea, in mugs for everyone, and prepared the various ways they had asked him to in his memories, in the TARDIS. He had made Wilf's like Donna's, and made his-selfs' and Rose a cup the same way.  
The half Doctor quietly grunted his thanks. The other politely thanked him, and Wilf, having never technically met him, shook his and properly introduced himself.  
When the door hinge down the hallway creaked, all the heads in the flat shot in that direction, ready to await the inevitable person walking slowly around the corner, and then...  
_Rose.  
Rose.  
Rose._  
In an instant, all the conversation that had been flowing stopped, and all attention was on her. No one moved, or spoke, or even breathed. They all waited for her to speak, to start the talk.  
"Well, then. Hello again. It's good to everyone, eh? Been awhile." Rose said, "Sorry for the delay, just had to look right. So, Doctors, what exactly is going on here?"  
"That's his job, I'm afraid," The Meta-Crisis Doctor said.  
"Well then. Better get started eh?" A curious silence greeted the half Doctor's statement.  
"To begin, this plan was first formulated directly after the incident with the Dalek invasion of Earth when we, sort of, began to regenerate. Then, as you all know, the real Doctor poured regeneration energy into his spare hand, Donna touched it, and he grew out of the real Doctor's hand. Now I was created as a product of a Time Lord program called the Afterimage program, established during the Time War, so that, whenever a Time Lord regenerated, a mostly human, partially Time Lord being was formed that would then be infused with a Time Lord Consciousness, and despite being unable to regenerate, would fight in the war. The real Doctor regenerated and is in some new body, away on an adventure with another companion likely, but here we are. So, today, unless we have any serious objections, the Doctor over there, and myself will fuse into a full Time Lord, and then we can grow a new TARDIS with the knowledge Donna gave us being able to access. The new form, uniquely would be regeneratively quantum locked, meaning it could regenerate, but it wouldn't change, ever. A good side effect, in addition to that meaning there would be a regeneration limit five time greater than normal. Meaning about 65 regenerations, only to heal injuries. I digress, any objections?"  
"Will you two keep all your memories from either form?" Rose asked him.  
"Yes, just like how it wasn't lost in separating, it shouldn't be lost in rejoining. No further questions or apprehensions?" Silence followed. "Okay then, let's go!"  
The group of seven went outside, around to a back-alley. The two Doctors lined up and prepared the selves for a process it was clear they had rehearsed for on their own. They lined up, hands pressed against each other, as if to begin a dance. The motion was fluid, and slowly, a slight glow of golden energy, much the same to regeneration energy began to flow from the intermingling space between them. The colour of the energy became deeper and its flow became faster and more steady. Their heart sets began to beat not in sync, but in the pattern of a Time Lord, an ancient rhythm of four. The energy grew brighter still and its ebb and flow ceased for a simple engulfing of energy around both of them. Their bodies began to be drawn together by the energy. It started to fuse them, at the surface.  
"I want to go." they said, their minds and hearts in proper sequence.  
The process was irreversible now, they just had to finish fusing. To them, it was easy, like returning to their, no his-self after using the Chameleon Arch. The power of the fusion shot out of them, without pain or a sense of loss or sorrow. For once, this man, this person who deserved so much, got what he wanted. A new life, with all of those he held dear.

[Now we are just calling him the Doctor, or Doctor. As always before in this story, he retains the appearance of David Tennant]

"HUUHHAGHHH!" the Doctor pulled himself out of the fusion process, ready to go and do anything, without a moment of change or loss of memories, seemingly.  
"Well then, hello there again. Got some things to do, come on follow me!" He ran back into the flat. Without a second of hesitation, Rose ran after him and the rest followed, quickly, but still slightly confused.  
As soon as the Doctor arrived in the flat and quickly grabbed the TARDIS capsule he had given to himself earlier.  
Then, quietly, he recalled the words DoctorDonna had said at Darlig Ulv Stranden, "'Shatterfry the plasmic and modify the dimensional stabilizer to a foldback harmonica 36.3, you accelerate the growth by the power of 59.' So let's modify the capsule using the sonic to those settings, and..." [Those words are taken from a deleted scene from "Journey's End"]  
The TARDIS capsule hummed with a glow that he remembered from his Future Technologies study during his time at the Academy. The TARDIS capsules would grow a TARDIS once activated, but took almost 7000 years to do so. Having accelerated the growth simply made the TARDIS ready to deploy now. Showing the capsule excitedly to all of them, he then ran out giddily. Again using the sonic, he opened the capsule and set the interior to what its design had been during his time with his original TARDIS in their origin universe, but due to the capsule's activation in this realm, it fed off energy from this universe. Then, he ran the new TARDIS to 1963 London onto a street-corner and then quietly tripped the chameleon circuit, which was easily repairable if necessary. The old blue police box was back!  
With a grin the size of the universe he was about to explore, the Doctor casually said, "Anyone wanna go for a spin?"


	4. Chapter IV

Afterimage  
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction  
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this will be at the start of each chapter.

Chapter IV: A New Dalek Empire  
(Fair warning, we have snogging, slight language and corniness this chapter, also its kinda short)

With the group all piled in, the TARDIS took flight, off into to a low-Earth orbit. The humming quieted from take-off, but was still audible. They had tested the extrapolator shields by flying through space junk, and then, just beyond the reach of human waste and technology, they hovered, leaving the doors open to admire the view below.  
Running around the TARDIS controls, the Doctor started to plug in all the basic control inputs and memories points that had been present on his old TARDIS, but until he inputted them, were not on the new TARDIS. He noticed all of his companions, staring out the doors and admiring the view. He smiled, and said to them, "Where would anyone like to go?"  
"I think, that a nice space dilemma would nice about now." Rose smiled back at him.  
"I just want to see some of them aliens!" Wilf said.  
Donna smiled at that and said, "You know Grandad, Mum will be getting worried, as she does. We should probably go back home soon."  
"That's the same for us, right Mickey? We have jobs, lives and friends who will wonder where we went." Martha said.  
"No worries. I had Jack put the second shield device at the entrance we used. Before we left, I patched base locations for the fiv- I mean four of you, and linked it to physical objects. For you ladies, on the hairpins, and for the gentlemen, on the inside of your rings. They will let you transmat from here, in the TARDIS directly to your homes, and vice versa. Just give me the word, and I can send you home." The Doctor said.  
"Why'd you start to say 'five of you,' Doctor?" Wilf asked.  
"He must of noticed; I figured he would have, so I might as well tell you all," Martha said, "I'm pregnant. Mickey knew, and I thought he might notice, but I just couldn't find the right time to tell you all. Sorry about that."  
"Oh, congratulations! Martha, Mickey, oh my God! I mean just, well, fantastic, for both of you!" Rose was thrilled for them.  
Donna and Wilf were equally happy and surprised. Smiling, and having made their farewells, the Smiths stepped under the transmat beam and were shifted back to their flat. Donna and Wilfred did much the same.  
The Doctor and Rose were alone, in the TARDIS and began to converse.  
"So, you do have all the memories, of both of them?" Rose asked him.  
"I do, I do, but some of them are a little fuzzy. I'm not sure if that's a problem that has happened before or not. But I can remember all the events, all the times together. Words, occasionally are a little fuzzy, but it all seems to be small talk." He told her.  
"You remember all the wonderful things we did together, on Earth?"  
"I remember working with the new Torchwood, I remember voting for the new president, I remember our marriage, as John Smith and the Rose Tyler. I remember you, forever so beautiful, no matter you might've said to the contrary. I remember all the parts of our new and the Doctor's after Meta had separated and the Doctor's Afterimage, I am what has become from both of them. I am the product of love and loss and sacrifice. I am the Doctor, for this world, reborn, never to fade from this face. And Rose Tyler, with a man like that, it takes someone pretty damn special to make him fall in love."  
Before both of them knew it, they were kissing. A simple, but passionate kiss, with the flair of love that might last for a thousand years or more. It was a kiss that made him long for more, and made her want to stay with him, made her know that he was still the man she had married.  
Almost twenty seconds of heartfelt snogging, they broke, for air. (and partially to keep this fic rated T)  
"So, do wanna go to a space resort, just relax? After all, we're on the universe's longest holiday, you and I. Anywhere you want to start." He beamed.  
"Let's go somewhere exciting and dangerous. Been awhile since we've faced almost certain death together." She beamed back at him.  
"I think I'm making you an adrenaline junkie," he teased her, "but, if you're okay with it," he got quiet, "I think it would be smart to go and find Daleks."  
Her face quietly contorted to fear; "Now, why, just why, would we want to go and do that?!"  
He smiled, and laughed, nervously, to break a bit of the tension, and said, "Well, you see, this universe was the same up until when you saved your dad, in your original universe, right? And as a result, we died and this universe is full of wrongs to right. The most immediate and dangerous of which is likely the Daleks."  
"But we already destroyed them! The Void Ship was destroyed, and all the Daleks went with it."  
"But what about the Dalek Emperor and Davros? They will destroy the entire universe if we don't stop them. They are large enough, together, to slaughter the cosmos."  
"I won't lose you, don't again! Not to them! Not to anyone! I love you and I will never let you die!" She began to sob, the primeval fear of the Daleks showing.  
"Hey, hey, hey... It's okay, we don't have to fight them now, alright? We're gonna be fine. That's okay, let all out, okay. Hey, look up, c'mon, hey, just remember, I love you."  
Rose stopped crying but didn't speak. The Doctor didn't speak either. Instead he carried her to what had formerly been his TARDIS bedroom, and they slept side by side, arm in arm.  
Without a care or worry in the world, they fell asleep in harmony.  
[short chapter this time, sorry! Just felt that this would be a perfect place to end it]


	5. Chapter V

Afterimage  
- A Doctor Who Fan-fiction  
DISCLAIMER: Extensive knowledge of the DW revived show, series 1-4 is recommended. This is being written by an American DW fan, so if there are any factual errors involving foreign lands, you have my apologies. Also, I'm calling "TenToo" the Meta-Crisis Doctor, so don't go ape, okay? Oh and this will be at the start of each chapter.

Chapter V: An Adventure Throughout Time and Space

When the Doctor awoke, the TARDIS bell was humming, quietly, so there was no danger, but evidently, there was news waiting on the console. Upon hearing this, he got up, walked into the Control Room, and checked the console.  
It read:

Doctor, we require your assistance! If you do not reply, we will secure your TARDIS! The Daleks are in need of your abilities! Reply, or face the task by force, and later extermination!

With Earthly "regards,"  
Daleks

He quietly chuckled and sent the TARDIS to the constellation of Kasterbous, the home of his people. The Doctor knew the boundary of the timelock protecting Gallifrey, but he also knew the Daleks would never willingly approach Kasterbous, unless there was an intention of war. He knew that unless the Daleks could pinpoint their exact location, they were safe.  
The noise the engines had made woke up Rose. She climbed out of bed, and still in her nighties, walked into the Control Room, with hair that was a lit bit everywhere, a complete mess. She smiled, still groggy from sleep. A quick cup of tea the Doctor had left her by the console woke her right up.  
She went into the TARDIS bathroom and did herself up nice and quick. The Doctor, on the other hand, showered quietly and quickly after she had gone to the pool for a morning swim. Their later days in the TARDIS had been like this. At about ten o'clock, they met up in the Control Room and that classic question was asked by the Doctor, "Where do you want to go now?"  
"You know, I was thinking... You remember the Ood? We should go to wherever their home world is." Rose said.  
"I went there, with Donna. We'd have our work cut out for us." The Doctor forewarned her.  
"No, then. Let's go somewhere, new. Hmmm. Let's go," she snapped her fingers, open the TARDIS door and pointed, "There."  
A point far off in space glimmered with a bright yellow hue. From the distant TARDIS, nothing could be seen but the star's colour and brightness.  
"Let's see then. That is... Alphakoine Tretonis, or Alpha Omega, God Planet. Bit disconcerting, considering the last time we found a planet with a religious figure, but we might as well see whats out there," he said, throwing the TARDIS through the time vortex.  
The landing was smooth, considering he had never passed the test to drive it, but the TARDIS handled excellently around him. Rose flung the doors open, and stepped out onto the God Planet. The light coming from the planet was extremely bright.  
Rose squinted her eyes and said, "Doctor, why's the light so bright?!"  
The Doctor looked out and beckoned Rose back inside. He then said, "I think that's x-tonic light. If it weren't for the TARDIS shields, you'd be vaporized right now. Either we can just kind of, leave, or I could warp the extrapolators, move the TARDIS to low orbit, away from the destructive x-tonic light waves, and we could go explore."  
"I mean, what's the risk of leaving the TARDIS in orbit? How do we get back to it?" asked Rose.  
"I have, a, a friend's old sonic screwdriver, and it has a special TARDIS call remote. It was built by me and its isomorphic, so only I can use it."  
"Alright, and if and when we do call it, the TARDIS would be destroyed, because the extrapolators would be protecting us right?"  
"No, because only a small portion is protecting us, most of it is still focused on the TARDIS."  
"Then, why not? Let's do this."

And so they moved the TARDIS into low-orbit, and jumped out, using the shielding reaction to cushion their landing. The planet's surface was still bright, but not painfully so. The effect of the shields was similar to sunglasses, in that it visibly reduced the effect of the light on their eyes. The shields also kept the pair in an oxygen filled environment, allowing them to explore anywhere.  
When the geology if the general area they were in had been mapped, the Doctor said, "Well then, let's go see where the indigenous are."  
"The indigenous? If this planet is bathed in normally deadly sun-rays, then how could life, oh I don't know, survive?" His companion sassed him.  
"Well, on the diamond planet, Midnight, where there were similar conditions, life existed, so I intend to find it!" He said, and nervously grew louder in his speech.  
"Woah, woah. That's fine, perfectly fine. Just a question. I'm sorry." Rose said, startled by his abrupt response.  
"No, no, sorry. I'm just, on edge, because, the last time I found one of these entities, it possessed me. And to free me, the original possessor had to die. The hostess, on board a tour ship, sacrificed herself to kill it and to save me." The Doctor was saddened, remembering again, all the lives lost at least in part because of him.  
He and Rose peered around the surface of the quartz, reflective planet, and found a small cavern. The internal structure of the cavern was massive, leading into a huge labyrinth. The whole cave glittered with the reflection of ancient x-tonic light rays. Slowly decaying in the reflective cavern, over millions of years, the pattern had degraded to a barely visible ray, mostly red-shifted, in an aurora-like pattern.  
The Doctor was amazed, knowing that Rose and himself were the first. The first to step on this ground, to look at this light. To see the energies of undamaged geology at work, without tumultuous life to disturb it.  
"The only thing here to even partially cause any change would be the x-tonics," he thought.

[this is using the name I thought he would have given the "Midnight entity" after the TV story "Midnight"]

Rose had separated from the Doctor, looking around at the labyrinth's majesty alone, if only for a moment. She felt the x-tonic rays sort of wobble within her body, and thought, "It's not exactly not harmful, but not really pleasant either. Kinda weird, but not worth mentioning."  
Rose was still exploring the labyrinth, as was the Doctor, when the pair heard a roar. A bone-chilling roar that brought the both of them to a point of fear that they had only felt twice. Once, when they were separated, for what they thought was forever; and when they had heard him before. Only one time. But the roar of the Beast had engraved itself in their memories.  
"Doctor?" Rose screamed, the primeval fear resonant in her voice.  
"Rose!? Rose, stay calm, I'm coming for you!" The Doctor yelled back.  
"I... I am," the Beast's voice sounded hesitant, "I am fear, and evil, eternal patience and life through all eternity, we are- I am the Ark- Beast of Hea- Hell."  
The Doctor, quick as he could, ran into Rose, hugging her tightly to his chest. They continued to listen to the Beast; "I am fear, we are evil, we- I, speaking is not-"  
"It- it sounds confused, Doctor." Rose said, still scared, but less so now.  
"Yes... What's that about? It is, or at least was, a huge, scary-as-all-hell monster and now it's having an identity crisis? Lame." The Doctor said, more annoyed than scared.  
"Let's follow the maze, then? Find this thing and see what's up?" Rose asked him, still scared, but still willing to find anything with her Doctor.  
"Why not?" He smiled at her, excited to be on the chase again.  
And then they ran. Running, through the corridors of the labyrinth, looking for a monster that had threatened them before, but they had destroyed. The power of the Beast was easy to trace using the sonic, and the pair made their way into a cavern.  
Here, despite a lack of light, there was a noticeable increase in the brightness of the area. A creature, less an incarnation of the Devil rather than one of an angel, appeared to stand back at them. This was not the Beast. It was white, and had wings. The halo atop its head was glowing a dim yellow, slowly removing itself from the angel's presence.  
"It can speak. But not here." The Doctor said, recalling the Beast, who had left his mind in Toby.  
"But, its mouth is moving, in the way you do when you talk." Rose said.  
"Wait. Listen to that." said the Doctor.  
"I...I...am...am...the...the...captive...captive...of...of...the...the...x-tonics...x-tonics." The Angel said, slowly repeating after something unknown.  
"It's... it's repeating. Oh no. No. Not again." The Doctor said, scared by that development.  
"Doctor," Rose grabbed his hand, "What does it mean?"  
"It's the creatures that can live through the light here. The one that lived on Midnight. They must be controlling the angel. Manipulating it. That's why the halo is dying. They fed, partially off our memories, tried to scare us away with a reasonable facsimile. So, now, we have to save this being."  
"How did you fight these, x-tonics, last time?" Rose asked.  
"I didn't. I found out all I could, becoming possessed in the process, and was saved by the hostess. Unless you kill the host, I'm not sure they can be killed." He told her, somberly.  
"The extrapolators are keeping us safe, yeah? From being possessed?"  
"Yeah. What are you thinking, Rose?"  
"What if we build an extrapolator, and use to protect him? Then, all we have to do is draw them out, and activate it, and he's saved!" Rose exclaimed.  
"No. It's impossible to 'draw them out' and we don't have the materials to build another extrapolator anyway. I want to see what exactly this thing is." The Doctor then said, "Possessors of this servant of light, retract from your mental grip, and allow me to speak with this entity!"  
The Angel seemed to smile, and said, "Thank you for my momentary reprieve, Child of Time, Daughter of Humani. It is one I needed desperately. These beings, known to you as 'x-tonics' and to me as 'demon-spawn' are ruthless, tormenting me even in my rest."  
The Doctor, while happy to help anything non-malicious, asked, "Why exactly, are you, well, here?"  
The Angel replied, "I was not unlike yourselves, Lord Doctor, Dame Rose. I was a wanderer, assigned to keep track of all Creation. This was one of my homes, on my journey. The creatures came, one night, whilst I slept, and both imprisoned me here, and possessed me to ward away any who would try to free another wretched soul."  
"How could the creatures be destroyed?" The Doctor asked, his eyes ablaze with the passion of a righteous man.  
"You would- have to- destroy- me- and you would destroy us." The Angel said, but was corrupted again by the x-tonics.  
"Rose, what do think we do?" The Doctor inquired of her.  
"Well, they feed on x-tonic light primarily, yes? The Angel was an added food bonus. So, place an atmospheric shell around the planet blocking x-tonic rays, and then, flood the system with a ton of it. Overfeeding would kill them." Rose said.  
Quickly, the Doctor congratulated his companion on her swift thinking and clever mindset, and then went back to the open air with her. They called the TARDIS using River's sonic and went back to orbit in it.  
"Spread a non-x-tonic ray shell over the atmosphere for about, say, a day, and then, let it all back in, flood them with food. They'll be so hungry, they'll stuff themselves to death." said the Doctor, performing the operation, and using the TARDIS to achieve their goal in, what was to them, less than a minute.  
"Scanning the planet for any life signs, two days ago... About 10,000. Scanning it for any life signs today and you get exactly one." He smiled.  
"The Angel." Rose smiled back at him.  
The Angel emerged from the cavern and thanked the Doctor and Rose for freeing him.  
"I cannot express my gratitude to you. The freedom to explore the universe is one that I only prayed to experience again." said he.  
"Well then, best for you to be off I think. Watch out for planets bathed in x-tonic light. Good luck, good Angel. Allon-sy!" said the Doctor, then watching the Angel fly away.  
"So, Doctor, where do you want to go now?" Rose asked him.  
"Consider this a second honeymoon. It's up to you, all of time and space. If you really want me to choose, then I still think the Daleks need a bit of set-back, as it where, so we should go and attack them. Give ourselves time to destroy them." He told her.  
"As long as we're not facing death via Dalek, I'm fine with trying to hinder their existence." She replied.  
"Daleks lived, originally, on the planet of Skaro, before its ultimate destruction by a black hole. It was laid siege to in one of the first Time Wars, long before any of yours truly were about. But, I did go there once, in my fourth incarnation, with Sarah Jane, if you remember her." The Doctor was prepping her for their mission; "Basically, after the Last Great Time War, Davros used Dalek Caan to survive, so we are going to just after when Davros escaped the war and we will use a genetic feedback inverter to block his Kaled DNA and delay the Dalek reformation, where he used his cells to form new Daleks."  
"Okay, but why exactly? And how?" Rose asked, eager to learn more about both the plan and the Daleks.  
"Why? To ease the stress the Daleks are putting on time and space and to create a less difficult to solve problem. As to how, I have a genetic feedback inverter in the TARDIS somewhere. He won't recognize either of us, although Caan might. One shot hits Davros, and we leave, the job's done." He explained.  
"Can we have one more night, together, just us, in the TARDIS first? Watch a movie, go for a swim, relax and talk? Just to kind of de-stress before tomorrow." She asked him.  
"Yeah, that would be nice. What do you humans call that again, a date night? Let's have a nice old date night." He beamed at her.  
As was their past experience, the movie they put on was an old romantic comedy, something that neither of them usually had a problem with. That night, as usual, the Doctor ended up falling asleep about two-thirds of the way through the movie. When it ended, she woke up him up, and he insisted that he had been awake the entire time.  
The other rooms in the TARDIS still had to be customized, so before they ran off and went swimming, they ended up having a nice dinner and worked to customize the TARDIS rooms they would use together. Then they talked awhile, and ended up going back to the old flat to prepare an "installation". The prepared room for the TARDIS to land so when they were on Earth they could use it as an addition to the flat.  
Using there own little addition, they went swimming and relaxed at the poolside together.  
Rose and the Doctor talked awhile, mostly about what their life would be like together now, about how they would share the TARDIS rooms and how he should make rooms that only one of them could get into, for alone time. They spoke about anything to avoid the events of tomorrow. Eventually, the dried off, changed into pajamas and slept quietly in their bed at the flat. They had the purest example of love found in the universe.


	6. Chapter VI

Chapter VI: The Dalek Stratagem

The morning had come at last. The Doctor and Rose woke up, and got dressed, and had a bit of breakfast. At this point, Rose inquired of him, "Aren't we stalling, just a little bit?"  
"Yeah, but do really want to rush, you know, going and fighting the deadliest enemy in the whole universe? Just relax, we can get there whenever we need or want to." He cajoled her.  
Rose winked back at him and then ran into the TARDIS. The Doctor chuckled and got up after her.  
"Hey," he said, "Rose! I think you should know, I have the big green button on the TARDIS controls set to automatically take it home to our flat, should the need arise that you have to leave without me."  
"You know, you keep saying this is gonna be easy-peasy, but you seem to have a lot of prep work going into this." Rose grinned at him.  
"With Daleks, you can never be to careful." He warned her.  
With that, they looked into each others' eyes, and the Doctor flipped the lever, sending them spiraling through space and time, to the first hours after Dalek Caan had saved the creator of the Daleks, Davros from certain death at the hands (or jaws rather) of the infamous Nightmare Child in the Last Great Time War, and temporal shifted himself and the Dalek mastermind to an escape pod, whereafter they had commandeered a Dalek clone ship.  
Caan had just discovered he could see all of time and space, every moment in that universe, and vowed silently to destroy the horrors of Dalek supremacy. The schism among his tendency as a Dalek to obey orders, his emotions as a member of the Cult of Skaro and his new mission quietly and swiftly drove him to depths of insanity, expressed by cryptic predictions of the future.  
Every time the TARDIS sailed through the time vortex, a small portion of Rose's head spun, reflecting a familiarity of her short, yet eternal time as Bad Wolf. Rose was still happy to be with her Doctor, a passion and a love that could drive her to confront any being willing to threaten him.  
Davros simply rejoiced in his continued existence and prepared to reform the Dalek Empire in all its supposed glory.  
The Doctor was afraid. Even more so than Rose or any companion. The Doctor had a natural fear of Daleks, even when he first discovered them, all those years ago. He had checked, double-checked and triple-checked everything, but he still felt there was something that would go wrong.  
The TARDIS spun and flew through the time vortex, and the commandeered Dalek ship prepared to jump through the Andromeda Galaxy and away from the universe's sight.  
The wheeze and groan of the TARDIS sounded in the Dalek hub-ship, the cap light shining into the bridge, where Dalek Caan and Davros stood. The police box landed, and its occupants emerged.  
"Caan." The Doctor said, disgust evident on his face.  
"Doctor!" Caan screamed, "The chase begins, Creator, the Emperor shall emerge, and the Doctor will die!" The abomination cackled.  
"Doctor? You, you are the Doctor?" Davros said.  
"Oh indeed. I've regenerated at least three times since we last met, Davros. And this face, I shall never fade from again. We know your plans, Davros, and we have to stop you." The Doctor said.  
"Doctor, do really think you can stop us. You and your new pet?" Davros laughed, "We already have the ship spawners prepared, and the Genesis Instantaneous Formation Device prepared. The moment we initiate the process, it will be done."  
"Oh, we can't stop you, Davros, but we can hurt you. We can slow down your empire, let it die from the inside." Rose spoke up.  
"The Bad... Wolf... - the Doctor must die! The Creator must face his own masterpiece, the Emperor! The power of the final, immortal Dalek regime shall reach its peak!" Caan shouted his prediction of a grim fate.  
The Doctor slipped inside the TARDIS, and grabbed the genetic feedback inverter. He walked out, showing his head and not revealing his body.  
"Doctor, why do wish to destroy us?" Davros asked, "Why do you believe that this world is better without our gloriousness?"  
"You want to know why, Davros? Why? Here's why. All the Daleks do, all they have ever done, is kill and hate and murder other innocent beings. You are the self-proclaimed harbingers of death to all who aren't Dalek. You deserve death because you murder, because you dare to destroy Creation around you!" The Doctor exploded in a righteous fury; "Davros! Prepare to witness the end of the Dalek Empire!" He fired the genetic feedback inverter, and it struck Davros head-on.  
Instead of destroying the genetic material necessary, the material began to inflate, causing the Dalek creation process to automatically begin. The key to the end of the Dalek might was in reverse! This ended up creating and designating Daleks faster than Davros had hoped to.  
Realizing what had happened, and internally sensing the creation of a time-lock around the event, Rose pulled the Doctor into the TARDIS, and yelled, "Doctor, the gene thingy was in reverse! We have to run, and now!"  
Panicked, the Doctor was more than happy to oblige, and tried to send the TARDIS to before these events, but the time-lock formation had reached a sequential lock, nothing could escape, nothing could enter.  
"Dalek Fleet, after them! Let the Daleks rule untested! Exterminate the Doctor! Chase, and destroy, that TARDIS!" Davros screamed orders.  
Along with the command ship, the Fleet took into the time vortex and laid chase to the TARDIS, closing fast on Rose and the Doctor.  
"Come on... Come on... Damn! They're catching us! Got... to go... faster..." The Doctor, said, straining to increase their speed; "Open all the engine valves, this TARDIS needs to fly!"  
The Doctor began to even risk overloading the engines. No matter how fast he managed to make the TARDIS, the Fleet was that much faster. Give them another few moments, and they would have no chance of survival. The Doctor told Rose to hold the throttle lever, and he repaired the chameleon circuit. Then, back at the controls, he shouted, "Get ready for an emergency landing, Darling!"  
The closet planet was the Ood Sphere, and they landed in the city of Ood High Council. The Dalek Fleet appeared right after them, ready to destroy anything in their path.

[another short-ish chapter! Again sorry, just wanted the cliffhanger factor. The next chapter may be long, or the next big event will be split into to two chapters.]


	7. Chapter VII

Chapter VII: The Death of Doctor  
The Ood Uprising had lain waste to most of Ood Operations, but rather than continue to destroy, the Ood had allowed the remains of the operation to be converted into a small human settlement, home to human physics who wished to connect with the Ood.  
The Dalek lasers and weaponry immediately destroyed this settlement and massacred the people living there, and the Doctor had been smart enough to disguise the TARDIS as an Ood Spiral Tower, in the High Council city. The TARDIS passengers left their vessel and quietly explained the situation to Ood Sigma.  
"We are in dire straits, Ood Sigma. We needed to land, but now we have put all of the Ood in danger. Is there anyway to re-suspend your telepathic field, temporarily? The Daleks can scan for it and could kill all of you." The Doctor said, almost at light-speed.  
While Rose was confused, Ood Sigma had easily absorbed all the information. Ood Sigma said, "Of course, Doctor. I shall use the Ood Brain to inform the Ood to deactivate the telepathic field until it is safe to reestablish it."  
"Good," said the Doctor, "Rose and I, this is Rose by the way, say hello Rose, we need to get to the Ood Operations city. Can you point is in the right direction?"  
Ood Sigma pointed them towards the city, twenty-seven miles away.  
"So then... We run?" Rose asked him.  
The Doctor shook his head, and said, "No, city's at least twenty miles away. We'd be seen and killed before we got there. The Daleks won't try to kill anyone here, they'd risk massacring the Oodkind and that would bring the might of the rest of the universe down upon them, and they are still a shadow of what they were before the War. But, we need to take care of them. We should fly the TARDIS through space, and land it in the city."  
"To the human physic settlement? The one that these Daleks just destroyed? Right now, its impossible to fly through open air, but we have a tunnel from the city to here, where there was an old Ood distribution centre. If you like, you can use it." Ood Sigma told them.  
"Ood Sigma, on the behalf of my husband, and myself, we'd like to thank you for your kindness. You have helped us a great deal." Rose said to him.  
"It is we who should be thanking you. You helped our brothers from across the universes to liberty from their human enslavement, even in death. Both the Doctor and you as well as the DoctorDonna."  
"Ood Sigma," the Doctor piped up, "Your generosity and both your and your parallel's kindness are much appreciated. You might not know it, but you sang to, you and the other Ood, right up until my death."  
"Doctor. The Daleks."Rose interjected, "We have to go."  
"Alright! Thank you Ood Sigma! I will defend this planet to my last from the Daleks." The Doctor shouted, running with Rose to the tunnels.  
The first vehicle they found in the tunnels was an old tour cart, which they rode until an emergency vehicle was found and hot-wired, giving them necessary speed. The Ood Brain had shut down the telepathic field between Ood, and instead focused on the Dalek sensors, which could passed off as magnetic interference.  
The swift motion of our heroes brought them to the charred, ashen remains of the physic human settlement within ten minutes. Quietly heading above ground, Rose and her Doctor found themselves in the still-standing, still-partially-functional, Ood Operations Headquarters. No Ood resided in the area, but the power and systems still worked.  
Rose went to use the console, to scan for the Daleks. The Doctor quietly said, "Wait a second there, Rose." He whirred the sonic screwdriver, looking for a physic field that would block the Daleks. "Okay, go ahead. Just checked for the psychic field I asked the Ood Brain to build mentally. Now that the Dalek sensors are blocked, we can use systems here on the surface without danger."  
"The Daleks will be able to compensate for the sensor dispersion eventually, won't they?" Rose had learned a thing or two throughout her extensive time with various incarnations of the Doctor.  
"Yeah, but we bought ourselves about an hour. It'll take the time to disable the psychic field, after they discover that it's not simple atmospheric dispersion. But, we have no such issues! Meaning," the Doctor said, quickly acessing the console scanners, "That we can see everything about them."  
The console room had a large display, which promptly featured a display of the incredible number of Dalek Armada ships present.  
"Let's see... That's about... ten-thousand saucers," his heart sank, "Which means that's twenty million of them. Now then, how best to best them?"  
"We could try doing what Donna did before, where she used their system to wreak havoc on them." Rose suggested.  
"No, no, we'd need to access their systems or hack, neither of which we can do from here or without revealing our location." The Doctor mused.  
"We could try to reverse the time stream of their actions and correct the timeline as we had planned it." Rose was adamant to try.  
"The TARDIS isn't here. And the events are time-locked, I tried to remove ourselves from the contingency the second we left, but the time-lock had reached a sequential temporal lock, meaning that we can't change time streams until the events have reached a resolution."  
"We could fight them head on, maybe with the Ood?"  
"Massacre."  
"We could tear apart the universal boundary, suck them into the Void."  
"We would destroy two universes and kill all of our friends."  
A silence came over them, and they realized this was a battle that would be practically impossible to win. The Dalek Armada was closing, the Ood physic field was beginning to fail, and the Doctor and Rose were alone.  
_

Martha and Mickey woke up in the morning, ready to resume a happy, if mundane, life in their universe. Waking up, Martha went off to UNIT and worked against the continued alien threat to Earth. On the other hand, Mickey stayed home, rather than working at the shop, and took care of the five-month old baby, Adeola, named after Martha's deceased cousin(who we see in "Army of Ghosts" 02x12)  
With the help of UNIT, Martha had managed to transfer her transmat device into her own wedding ring. In the UNIT office, Martha instructed new cadets on basic training in medical treatments. Mickey, at home, had just put Junior to his nap, and saw an email addressed to the both of them on his computer. It was from Jack.

The email read:  
Hello there, Mickey!

So, first off, I must to the parallel world, despite the Doctor's warning. Here's why. First of all, as the original intent of Torchwood, I have kept track of the newly  
regenerated Doctor. He has fought a hard battle, and in pocket of our world, a reset of universe will occur. This will resolve any paradoxes of my leaving. It will also allow you and the others to continue your travels there. According to Torchwood bugs in the original TARDIS, anything that is remembered can remain, be created or reborn. All you have to do is remember the transmat, and the moment I get to the new TARDIS, I can transmat you all in. Pertaining to why I need you all, and soon, the Doctor and Rose are in danger. Wilfred managed to tell me about all this when I came to visit the Temple-Noble Estate.  
The Doctor and Rose are trapped, in danger, and I can feel it because of the time flux from Rose's connection to the time vortex, a force that reaches across universes. Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, I request your help, to save our Doctor. (See back for time-reference)

Thank you, and congratulations on the baby,  
Capt, Jack Harkness

Mickey had mulled over the scenario and spoke with Martha on it.  
"Hun, I just think that the idea of memory bringing something back as a bit ridiculous." Martha said.  
"But we can trust the Doctor, past present or future, right? And we can trust Jack. Maybe they're right." Mickey retaliated, playing on her trust of the Doctor and Jack.  
"True, just, when is this happening? If we are gonna focus on this, we need to be ready." Martha affirmed.  
"Let's see, Jack sent a picture on the other page, and it says that the reset is on... June 26th, 2010, so in about a month now." Mickey said.  
"Alright, but that parallel runs ahead of us right? So right now, the Doctor and Rose are in danger!" Martha exclaimed.  
"But, 'the events have to run parallel so, traveling there only affects the time stream of the origin point,' at least according to some babble the Doctor spewed out last time we were walking there." Mickey said, "So the events will be happening when we arrive, despite that, I think. And even if they aren't, time machine!"

"Twenty million of them, right?" Rose asked.  
"That's right, twenty million. Why?" asked the Doctor.  
"Can we make them think we left, so they'll run off?"  
"Oh, Rose Tyler. You are brilliant!" The Doctor's grin lit up the darkness surrounding them. "This is incredibly stupid, and will probably get us killed, but its the best option we've got! Come on!"  
They started to run back to the emergency vehicle, when the Doctor remembered, "River's screwdriver," called the TARDIS using the remote function, and snapped his fingers to open the door.  
Rose ran into the TARDIS to prime the engines (since they turn on when someone enters) and the Doctor sent them into flight towards the time-lock's edge. The engines were still at maximum flight from their escape earlier and they needed to be caught.  
"Mind telling me what this plan is? I'm more than happy to help out, but I'd like to know what we're doing." Rose asked.  
"We," the Doctor, while draining every last drop of speed out his TARDIS, and reverting it to its normal shape, said, " are trying to use ourselves and the Dalek Armada to crash into the time-lock, and using an emergency temporal shift subroutine at the same moment. The overwhelming force should create momentary cracks in the time-lock, and letting a small object, like a police box, through, but not the Dalek Armada."  
The TARDIS flew through the air. Without the bent spatiality of the time vortex, their flight was fast, but not as graceful. Moving at almost the speed of light, the TARDIS caught fire and burnt through the Armada ships. Without a moment's hesitation, they gave chase to him.  
"WHAM!" A huge crash shook the TARDIS, and outside, the Dalek Armada was similarly shaken.  
The Doctor sprang forward on the emergency temporal shift button and engaged it. The engines began to overheat, and vented directly into the Control Room. Sparks shot up everywhere. The TARDIS began to vibrate and spin, faster and faster, straining against the time-lock's powerful barrier.  
For just a fraction of a second, the TARDIS registered outside of the time-lock. A thousand galaxies away, the insane Dalek Emperor could detect a lone TARDIS, trapped within a newly formed time-lock.  
"Quickly, my servants, we have a single TARDIS, trapped in a newly formed time-lock. We must enter and assist our Dalek brethren. Quickly, prepare the device or be damned!" The Dalek Emperor.  
"PREPARE THE COORDINATES. WE SHALL ASSIST OUR DALEK BROTHERS IN EXTERMINATING A TARDIS." The Dalek commander shouted on the Dalek communications wavelength.  
"Coordinates: Imprecise but usable. Time-lock boundary surrounds structure known as Orion Multi-Star System, approximately 1500 lightyears from Sol-3." The Dalek navigator reported.  
"Prepare to engage materialization drive. Set destination for the external boundary of the time-lock!" The Emperor ordered.

The TARDIS bounced off of the time-lock boundary and flew out towards the Dalek ships, but they had a similar reaction upon hitting the boundary separating the conflict from the rest of the universe.  
Inside the Control Room, the Doctor and Rose were not faring well. The engines had completely failed upon their deflection from the internal time-lock boundary. The gyroscopes and vortex materializers had failed also. The TARDIS had been reduced to a fancy, bigger-on-the-inside box of shielding, tumbling through the skies of the Ood Sphere aflame.  
The Doctor yelled out, "We're crashing! Engines and all primary functions, except life-support and extrapolator shielding are gone. Gyroscopes are gone, so once we-" a roll across the entire ship interrupted him; "Once we hit the atmosphere, we're gonna start spinning, and we'll be lucky to crash doors up."  
"Doctor! Some of the controls might still work! We can level her out!" Rose shouted.  
"Alright then, come on!" He yelled.  
They worked together to help level out the TARDIS and sent her bottom first into a big snow bank.  
"PLOOMP." They crash-landed.  
"Okay, we aren't safe in the TARDIS really, we can't escape and the Daleks should find us within a minute so... I'm going to see if I can repair any systems at all. Maybe we can fight against them using something recoverable." The Doctor fretted about, clearly terrified, more for Rose than himself.  
"Doctor?" Rose's voice broke, her beauty was gently softened by tears. "What are we gonna do? How can we ever go home?"  
"If I had managed to break the time-lock, we might have been okay. But now these events are fully fixed, nothing is in flux here. I would know, that's how I see everything. We have to ride out the wave until its last crest. Maybe the events are in flux such as that, whatever we do must always create the same result, not that everything must always happen the same... But! Oh my God. That's brilliant!" The Doctor ran off, moved by sudden inspiration.  
The Doctor tinkered with wires and fussed around, passing the moments before their untimely demise. He managed to get a few more systems online, like the lights and the self-destruct, if necessary. Most importantly, he had just managed to reactivate the communications are wire into Dalek transmission and the screen crackled to life, which allowed them to hear a Dalek communication.  
"Davros! You have survived? How?" The Dalek Emperor demanded to know, and said, "I saw your ship destroyed at the Gates of Elysium in the first year of the Last Great Time War. You were dead!"  
"I would have been, had not been for a true hero among Daleks, Dalek Caan. He performed an emergency temporal shift and spiraled into the Time War, unprotected, and saved my life. He then used a gift from his journey, a newfound gift of prophecy, to encourage the creation of a new Dalek regime. I have created these twenty million, and the ships they preside in. Now, as to you. How did you break through the time-lock manually, and why did you dare alter the moments leading up to a fixed point?" Davros said.  
"In the thousands of millions of years since the Time War, we have waited in darkness, my own self slowly cultivating new Daleks, from human DNA, and then purging them before their ultimate creation. I have engineered almost half a million this way. As to the time-lock, I copied a faint energy signature that had broken into the War and copied its quantum fluctuations. That allowed me to open the way. As I am the rightful Supreme Power of this Universe, I have Dominion over all of Time and Space, mine to subjugate! Naught shall bar me from my right to destroy the Last Child,of Gallifrey, who must have survived. None shall interfere! He is mine to kill." The Emperor boomed.  
"Emperor! You have betrayed the Dalek way. You have taken on the role of a deity, one which would cultivate emotions in their creations. You have become a twisted abomination!" Davros shouted.  
"The Creator and the Subjugator shall clash! And one must die!" Caan chuckled.  
"Indeed," said the Emperor, "Davros, you have overstepped your rights as Dalek Creative Origin Master and betrayed the New Dalek Empire. For this, I sentence you to death by extermination! All things Dalek are mine to command! Kill him my subjects, kill him!"  
The Daleks, controlled by the Pathweb, ultimately obeyed, fearing being called a traitor to their Empire. Davros's death was not fast, but slow, as the exterminator beams were still charging in the Dalek gun-sticks. Instead of instant, painful, but instant death by electric shock and radiation poisoning, Davros slowly boiled and exploded inside his armor.  
The Subjugator reigns supreme! The Death of the Doctor must spark the immortal New Dalek Regime!"  
"Dalek Caan, your place is now at my side. Join me as soon as you can. Now then. Unless I intervene divinely, obey Dalek Caan's orders. The seer will lead us to victory! On, to kill the Doctor!" The Emperor screamed.  
The transmission cut out.  
_

"It's today. Remember. Adeola. Ourselves. Your gran, do you think Mickey?" Martha said.  
"No, she's probably happier wherever the dead go." Mickey swallowed hard, and read to Martha, "'We have to run away, before all this happens. If we wait, the Doctor and Rose will die.' That's from a letter Jack sent this morning."  
"I give Adeola to Tish. We go and travel back here as close to when we leftas we can. Agreed?" Martha said.  
"Agreed." said Mickey.  
"Agreed," said Jack, "Now all that's left is Donna.  
The group travelled to Donna's home and informed her of the situation quickly.  
"We are going to be walking into a battle, hell, maybe even a war. We need Torchwood grade weapons and we need to be careful. It's Daleks. We have to help the Doctor and Rose change the future, or they will die and a universe would fall to the terror of the Daleks." Jack said, briefing them all for their daring mission.

The Doctor managed to get the audio orders from the Daleks, using the passcode into the Pathweb that he had hacked with before.  
The orders repeatedly sounded, "BEGIN MAIN GROUND INVASION OF OOD SPHERE. LOCATE AND DESTROY TARDIS AND TIME LORD. ANY COMPANION TO BE EXTERMINATED. OCCUPY, LOCATE, DESTROY, EXTERMINATE. REPEAT..."  
The Doctor knew the only way to destroy the Daleks would be a drastic cost. The plan he had formulated involved his own permanent death, but it would destroy all things Dalek left in this universe and save Rose. His only purpose was to avenge his people and save the love of his lives, Rose Tyler.  
"I want you to stay here, Rose. Emergency Programme One will activate the moment the time-lock dispels, after what must happen, happens." The Doctor said, priming the TARDIS engines for a single trip.  
"What has to happen?" The Doctor ignored her; "Doctor. What has to happen?"  
"Caan can predict the future, he can see the time vortex and he said I was going to die. I have to die, or you'll die too. I can't even immediately regenerate, because I need to take as many of these bastards as I can with me."  
"Let me help you." Rose said.  
"No! Don't you see! That's what they want! To see the only person I completely, absolutely love die in my arms. They want to break my soul before they kill me, because killing my race wasn't good enough."  
"Please Rose, I can't escape my fate here, but you can. Please, just live. Stay safe, for me." The Doctor said, and the tears streamed down his face.  
"Okay."said Rose; "I love you."  
As he turned to leave, Rose said one more thing, not happy, or pleasant, but terrifying, despite all that was around them. "Doctor, remember what Caan said on the ship. 'Bad Wolf.'"  
"The end of the universe. The end of us all." He mused, and walked out the door without another word, or a glance back at Rose, whose face was now also covered in tears.

The Doctor found a patrol of Daleks patrolling the street he wandered onto. He snuck around them, and broke into a stairwell, and ran up it as fast as he could.  
"The roof," he thought, "that's where I'll make my final stand."  
The roof door came up to meet him too soon. Instead of sonic-ing it, he instead kicked it open, and relished the force and power in the action. The Dalek ships had descended, hovering a thousand feet above the human settlement. The Doctor strutted over to the rooftop's center, and in his best conflict voice, amplified his voice using the sonic, and said, "Hello there! Daleks! If you want me, then come and get me!"  
A Dalek gunstick blast went through him at full power.  
"One." He thought, and held back his imminent death and regeneration.  
The Dalek ships gathered around him, encircling the sky above him. Brigades of Daleks hovered level with him, prepared to kill him, but none would, without an order to.  
"Waiting for their Emperor to have me murdered, then?" thought the Doctor.  
The Emperor appeared in the air, projected by a Supreme Dalek.  
"Doctor." said the Emperor, "Your meddling in Dalek affairs and your constant humiliation of our race ends today. Today, I, Lord of All Daleks, shall destroy the Oncoming Storm. Daleks of my divine design, take aim!"  
A portion of the crowd of Daleks pointed their gunsticks at the Doctor.  
"Fire!"  
The Doctor ducked, and ran, jumping off the roof. The Daleks were now in full pursuit of him, all of them shooting at him, and really at anything that moved.  
As he fell, a shot grazed through him.  
"Two."  
He ran and ran, as fast and far as he could. The fastest he had ever run, after more than 900 years. The Daleks kept shooting, and he was hit by yet another shot.  
"Three."  
The Daleks hovered above him, giving chase by the air. A Supreme Dalek hit him on the side of the skull.  
"Four."  
The Doctor ran and ran. But even he could not outrun a mass of more than a million Daleks deployed on the ground. Eventually, they surrounded him, both on the ground and in the air.  
"Can I say, one last thing, before I die?" The Doctor asked.  
"Last Child of Gallifrey," the Emperor's voice boomed, "Your final words shall be known. Speak them and prepare for extermination."  
"I forgive you. All of you. Beyond my death, the last act of the Time Lords is forgiveness. That's what my people would have wanted. And one last thing." He whirred the sonic screwdriver up and the TARDIS screen lit up, to show Rose his final moments.  
"Rose," he said, looking square at her. "I'm going to die. I'm sorry. I love you and I always-" his voice became strained with the force of the four regenerations he was holding back, "and I always will. Goodbye Rose. My beautiful, never-wilting Rose." He smiled.  
"Once again, I forgive you, Daleks. I'm finished. Do your worst."  
"I shall kill the Doctor, none other." the Emperor said.  
The whole of Creation had a moment of silence, and then the blast came. From the flagship of the Armada, the final shot of the Time War rained down and engulfed the Doctor.  
"Five." The Doctor thought.  
The Doctor regenerated, with the force of five full regenerations at once, scattering the final shot's energy to all the Daleks surrounding him. The golden glow lit up the Ood Sphere, a glow that surrounded the Armada, and immediately torched at least half of it.  
The remaining Daleks shot wildly, and prayed to destroy the Time Lord's twin hearts, and end the torrent of burning golden energy that threatened to swallow the planet of conflict.  
The goal of the survivor Daleks was met, they shot the Time Lord through his hearts, instantly ending his regeneration. The act had burnt his body into a mangled corpse and leveled every building within a mile of him.  
But the Daleks had won. The Doctor was dead.  
[Sorry for the long chapter! I'll probably upload this in two parts, just to be safe.]


	8. Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII: The Rise of the Bad Wolf

Rose watched in horror as the Doctor spoke his final words to her, "Rose, I'm going to die. I'm sorry. I love you and I always-" he strained to finish, "and I always will. Goodbye Rose. My beautiful, never-wilting Rose." He smiled, a grin so huge it lit up his bloodied face.  
After that Rose heard words, but none of them processed. The only being left in the universe that truly mattered to her was about to die.  
The beam from above engulfed her Doctor. When he began to regenerate she had felt the wind from the process and could see the glowing light across the sky. The Dalek Armada saucers began to explode and crash, streaming the sky with fire and dotting the planet's surface with wreckage.  
All of a sudden, it all stopped. A single lone body fell, the Doctor's corpse.  
"Doctor... No... My Doctor... He can't be dead... How can he be dead?" Rose cried, softly.  
Having remembered what the Doctor told her to do, she pressed the button to engage Emergency Programme One. No start up of the engines, no flight, nothing. The engines had been tested and were fine, so something else was keeping Rose on the planet.  
"The time-lock is still in place, even though he died. He died for nothing! Why did he have to die? Why would he leave me alone?" thought Rose.

Jack had waited just inside the Void for the universal reset, and knew that another Captain Jack Harkness would be created in his stead, allowing him to be free of the chains of immortality. After the reset, his immortality would more than likely be gone.  
After the reset, which was an incredibly fast process, Martha and Mickey came through into the entrance of the Void, along with Donna. Wilf had opted to stay home, growing weak in old age.  
"Hey guys! What's up?" Jack asked.  
"Not much, you know, the universe reset itself, had a cheese toasty for lunch, the norm." Donna sassed him.  
"You said we don't have a lot of time, right? If we don't hurry, the Doctor will die." Martha said.  
"Straight to the TARDIS, then?" Mickey said.  
"One moment." Jack asked and grabbed Donna's arm.  
"Ready... And... Now!" Jack gave the order.  
They group of them shimmered and vanished in a flash of ethereal light.

In the TARDIS, Rose sat alone, and waited for the Daleks to find her. Waited for death to come, and join her with her Doctor again. Before death came to her, her friends would.  
Jack, Martha, Mickey and Donna appeared in the TARDIS.  
"AHHHH!" Rose screamed.  
"Hi." Jack smiled.  
"Hey Rose!" said Donna.  
"Mrs. Tyler." Mickey said.  
"How's it going, Rose?" Martha asked.  
"And, uh, where's the Doctor?" Jack asked.  
"The, uh the Doctor, he, he had to-" Rose began to sob again.  
"The Daleks, they- they had us trapped, they still do, but, he, he went to go and stop them. I could hear when he was shot, but he forced me to stay here. They shot him five times, and he regenerated. He told me, that he, that he loved me. But it was gonna burn him up, entirely. He didn't even finish killing them, because they destroyed his hearts! They burned him and killed him and now we're all gonna die!"  
"Rose, please. We can stop them. Maybe we can bring him back somehow." Donna pleaded with her,  
"Donna! You're brilliant!" Jack exclaimed.  
"What did I do?" Donna raised a sad but sassy eyebrow at Jack.  
"I know what we can do now! Cause she did it before!" Jack said, and pointed at Rose.  
"Wait, you don't mean..." Mickey started.  
"Yep. Bad Wolf. We know she can control it, a little bit, and that she can handle it." Jack said.  
"But it would kill her, I mean without the Doctor to absorb it to save her." Mickey said, gravely.  
"Mickey, it can bring people back to life. It can save him, kill the Daleks and resolve the situation without breaking a sweat." Jack replied.  
"Rose." Martha said, softly, just to her; "Rose, are you okay with this? This is your chance and your life, so it has to be your choice."  
"What just... Look! The walls! The door! It's everywhere!" Donna exclaimed.  
Rose looked up, and stopped sobbing. After she cleared the tears away from her eyes, two words appeared everywhere she looked.  
"Bad Wolf."  
Rose looked at herself, and the words were there. She took a deep breath, and said, "There can only be one Bad Wolf. And it has to be me. Open the Heart of the TARDIS. I need to do this."  
"Mickey, grab your gun and set it to the Magolater. It's the setting in the right side, after the heavy plasma setting. There you go." Jack said, after Mickey had done so, and he had done the same.  
"Together, on three," Mickey said, "One, two, three!"  
The Magolaters were activated and adhered to the door separating the Heart of the TARDIS from Rose. Their fierce pull slowly began to open the hatch.  
The wonders of the universe, all of time and space began to whisper to them, in pure Gallifreyan. The battle and struggles, the triumphs and tragedies, all of the universe in its majesty.  
The choir of Creation sang, the light of the universe reflected in the TARDIS's heart.

Rose Tyler stood in front of the now-opened TARDIS hatch, staring once more into the Heart of the TARDIS. The energy of the time vortex streamed into her through her eyes. A golden glow, similar to regeneration, appeared around her. The glow shuddered around her form.  
"Friends of Rose Tyler, Children of Time. Clear the path to our victory over the Doctor's oldest and greatest enemies." Bad Wolf said.  
"Are... Are you Bad Wolf?" Jack asked.  
"I am the Bad Wolf. The words, I shall scatter them... To Caan's mind, to the walls of this TARDIS, and one more place. The walls of Human-Ood City. Follow, as fast you dare." Bad Wolf explained to them.  
"Wait! Please! I need to know. Is my immortality gone?" Jack begged of it.  
(The Bad Wolf entity is considered an "it" by the DW Wiki)  
"I gave you the gift of life last time, but I could not could not control the power I bestowed. Now I shall rectify that mistake." It held out Rose's hand, which glowed golden, and said, "Three. You know the meaning."  
Without another word, Bad Wolf materialized them out of the TARDIS, and to the centre of human settlement.  
"Dalek-kind!" Bad Wolf thundered. "I am the Bad Wolf. Let your prophet speak before I end your reign of malice."  
On the Dalek flagship, Dalek Caan repeated in convincing mock horror, "B-bad Wolf?! Bad Wolf?! Bad Wolf is the end! Burning, evil horrors and pain!" It wailed.  
"Child, your courage and defiance shall be met with swift and brutal retaliation. Daleks, exterminate them!" The Emperor boomed.  
Thousands of Dalek exterminator blasts flew at Bad Wolf and the other Children of Time. At the exact same moment, all of the blasts were made still. An eerie silence pervaded the city, until Bad Wolf once more spoke.  
"Daleks. I can see all of time and space. All the crimes you have committed, the murders, the genocides. I was there when you were going to destroy all of Creation, not just the universe of those Daleks origin, every universe. I must punish you, on behalf of all things still living. Your race, already reduced to a mere ten million strong, must pay the ultimate price for your crimes!"  
"Hah! I am God!" The Dalek Emperor screamed. "I shall never succumb to this wretched beings false threats."  
"You have killed the man I loved. I with Rose Tyler, bearer of the Bad Wolf, decree no more! First, I must bring life." Said she, as she directed the energy towards her Doctor's mangled corpse.  
"You shall live, not for thirteen, nor sixty-five, but for an infinite number of regenerations, Doctor, without change. And I shall be beside you, forever."  
The Doctor gasped, breathing for air. He sat up, quickly and nearly fainted. He looked around, to find his companions, and Rose. He had seen something off about her, and it hit him.  
"You... You're Bad Wolf?" The Doctor said, frightened and angry.  
"My Doctor. I have you safe. Now for the matter of the Daleks." Bad Wolf said.  
"Rose, please. You can't control life and death. Please, you saved me, and we can stop them, but not like this!" The Doctor yelled.  
"Doctor, I can see all of time and space. Behold the crimes of the Daleks against all of Creation." And she held his head to hers.  
"Time and time again, anywhere they travelled, they have committed crimes by the Shadow Proclamation's dictation. An amassment of such crimes has only one verdict. Total extermination." Bad Wolf proclaimed.  
The images that the Doctor had seen were awful. Murder, genocide, omnicide of planets and galaxies, attempted omnicide of the multiverse, and the murder of countless Time Lords.  
"It goes against everything I stand for, everything that has kept me sane. I only dared to defy my beliefs once, and it cost me so much. Bad Wolf, do as you will, I cannot and I will not stop you. Just beware the price." The Doctor said.  
"Doctor... I can't. But it can. And it has to be done. For the safety and sanity of all beings. I'm so sorry." Rose's voice spoke.  
"I must end this. The Time War must end. The Daleks must burn, Doctor. Do not judge the human. My mind has influenced her. I'm sorry as well. But some violent actions must be taken to ensure true peace." Bad Wolf announced.  
Staring up at the Armada, and peering into the flagship's bridge, Bad Wolf spoke to the Daleks.  
"Daleks, speak prayers to your false god. All of you shall die. The Time War ends, and the Daleks are destroyed, ridding the universe of the last of their tyranny and destruction."  
"I cannot die!" The Emperor shouted; "I will not die!"  
Even then, the Daleks and their ships were being atomized. The screams of ten million Daleks were heard, but barely over triumphant cry of one Dalek.  
"Bad Wolf! I have seen the entirety of Creation, and I declared no more! Thank you, for you have fulfilled the final Dalek Paradigm's death!" Caan screamed, dying full of happiness and joy that the evil of his kind would not long outlive him.  
The song of ten million damned souls rang out, and while pitiable, the Daleks faced up to their crimes, with an ultimate cost, total extinction by slow, painful atomization.

"Rose!" The Doctor tried to run to her, but fell, and couldn't get up.  
"Doctor!" Jack yelled to him, "I've got this!"  
Jack kissed Rose on the hand, letting the energy pass from her to him.  
"Jack!" The Doctor screamed, "Don't! It'll kill you! You're immortality's gone, I can sense it!"  
While holding the energy in, Jack managed to say, "It's okay. Bad Wolf gave me one last gift after taking away my immortality."  
Jack embraced as little of the energy as he had to, and materialized in the TARDIS.  
The hatch was open, but its inside was black, silent and absent of the beauty he had seen before.  
Jack released the energy, and the Song of Creation played, and a light brighter than any other shone from the TARDIS.

Rose woke up in the TARDIS bedroom her and the Doctor had shared.  
"Hello?" Rose asked. "Is any there anyone in here? Doctor?"  
"Doctor! She's awake!" Donna yelled.  
"Good, good." The Doctor said. "Tell her I'll be in a minute."  
"He'll be in to see you in a minute dear." Donna smiled.  
Martha and Mickey had been faring worse when it came to Jack. Despite his insistence of a "gift" from Bad Wolf, nothing had happened beyond his untimely death, alone in the TARDIS. They had lain him in a bed, inside one the TARDIS bedrooms built for a companion, with his eyes closed and a blanket draped over him until they could properly dispose of his body.  
"HUHHHGHHH!" Jack suddenly gasped for air.  
All eyes in the TARDIS shot towards the room where Jack was.  
"Jack? Jack, are you all right?" Martha asked him.  
"Fine," Jack whispered, "Just a bit dazed. I still have two lives left, one to spare."  
"So that was Bad Wolf's gift to you? A couple of extra lives? Just not infinite lives." Mickey said.  
"Yep. Freedom from eternity, freedom from death, just not forever." Jack said, quietly having gotten up and walked into the Control Room.  
"Jack! Oh good on you, mate, glad to see you're still with us!" The Doctor hugged him, but for no more than three seconds.  
"I'll be back in awhile, got to go talk to the Wolf." The Doctor walked into his shared TARDIS bedroom, and looked into Rose's eyes.  
"Doctor." Rose smiled.  
"Hey, Rosey." He smiled back.  
"I killed them, didn't I? The Daleks, I killed them all." Rose's horror was plain to see on her face.  
"It wasn't you. It told me that, Bad Wolf did, it said that it exerted full control so that it would be responsible, not you. You aren't punishable by moral code or law. Especially not by amy of us." The Doctor explained, calmly and slowly.  
"It- it was all such a flash... I can remember talking to you, but not what I said. I saw-" Her voice broke, "I saw so many horrible things. I watched them burn Doctor, your people. So many times. All the pain they ravaged across everything, everywhere. So much horror. So much pain."  
"Rose, I saw it too. Bad Wolf showed me." The Doctor said, and continued on with, "The horrors of this day are known as a justice. The things we have seen will leave scars, forever on our souls. But at least you and I have eternity to heal together."


	9. Epilogue

Epilogue: The End of an Era

Martha, Mickey and Donna all returned home after the prompt recoveries of Jack and Rose. Jack, however, had elected to remain on the TARDIS.  
"Well then! Team TARDIS, back at it!" The Doctor smiled, but not with his usual "amour de la vie."  
"Hey, Doc, you okay?" Jack asked.  
"I'm fine. Just, where do you want to go?" The Doctor said, avoiding the question.  
"Doctor." Jack, said, the determination set in his face.  
"I am fine! There's nothing wrong with me!" The Doctor yelled.  
"Doctor," Rose spoke to him, softly, "We saw horror after horror. We saw your people die so many times, and I'm sorry that Bad Wolf showed us that. Let us help."  
Rose was moved too, and remembered what Bad Wolf had done to her.  
"Doctor," her voice was scantily more than a whisper, "Bad Wolf made me a Time Lord. I can hear two hearts."  
"Why?" The Doctor sobbed. "How?!"  
"Doctor, it made you and Rose the same. It made her able to regenerate infinitely, just like you can now. You don't have to die, ever, unless you both want to." Jack said.  
"You're right. Rose and I can, and we can right the wrongs of a million worlds. You can see some of them, but not all of them anymore." The Doctor said.  
"Maybe it all ends happily this time, for us all." Rose said, and smile flashed on her face.  
The weights of the Daleks' slaughter never went away, but over time it lessened on the Doctor and Rose.  
The Doctor, Jack and Rose Tyler travelled throughout time and space, saving planets, destroying monsters and had the time of their lives.  
Eventually, Jack had to go.  
"I'm gonna miss you guys. I can't stay forever now! I've got a whole world to explore, and I finally have a deadline to do it by. Doctor!" He saluted.  
"Mrs. Tyler." He grinned and gave them both a big hug. He opened the TARDIS door, and breathed in the London air.  
"Take care, Jack!" Rose yelled after him.  
"Try not to die!" The Doctor said, and he knew Jack would grin.

The Doctor's other companions visited from time to time, and went on adventures with them. Bold, death defying adventures, to place beyond anyone's imagination. The fought Cybermen, more of the dastardly x-tonics, and even creatures that they had never encountered before, such as the creatures we know as the Silence.  
Through it all, Rose and her Doctor were together. Always together. They fought, worked, thought and ran together. (They did a lot of running.)  
The only thing that had separated them was race, but now even that was gone. When it came time to regenerate, neither of them changed. Golden glows shimmered through the TARDIS countless times, with explosive power.  
The pair complemented each other, working to always prevail against any foe. Rose was the common sense person, the one who made sure that everything was kept within plausibility and reasonableness. All too often, she ended up the translator from "Doctor English" to normal English.  
On the other hand, the Doctor was still the brains behind their operation, mainly. He piloted the TARDIS, soniced things and picked out good romantic comedies for their date nights.  
The only pain they felt was remembering the atrocities that the now-extinct Daleks had done. A horde of monstrous memories flooded their connected subconsciousnesses when they slept. The pain from the Daleks faded eventually. Regeneration after regeneration, for each of them, never changing, only renewing, the pain faded away.  
All that was left was love, two adventurous spirits, never to die, and all of time and space, an infinite vastness to tour together.  
Love had triumphed over tragedy, giving Creation's heroes their their justly dues. Conflict was theirs to resolve, and the universe was safer with them together.  
To protect the cosmos, they decided not to recreate the Time Lords. When time and space was safe, and the names of the Doctor and the Rose were unknown for all but legend, they decided at long last, after almost a million years together, to pass away.  
"That's the last one." said the Doctor, a cheerful, but final note to his voice.  
"Yeah." Rose laughed.  
"We really did it. We saved everyone." She started to cry.  
"We did. Now all that's left is to take one last run." The Doctor,smiled, and wiped her tears away.  
The TARDIS engines engaged, throwing them to meet all of their friends together, at once, as the Doctor had asked. Through timeline events, they had seen all of their friends die later, in a battle against the Cybermen.  
"Hey!" Martha shouted.  
"Doctor!" Jack laughed.  
"Oi, Martian Boy! Rose! Come here for a hug would you?!" Donna yelled.  
"Hey Boss. Rose." Mickey smiled.  
"What bring you to Earth?" Martha inquired.  
"We, uh, we came to say goodbye. Properly." Rose said.  
"For us, it's over. We saved everyone we could. I wanted us to get to say our farewells, before Rose and I take one last journey together." The Doctor said.  
"We love you all. And I know, it's a rubbish goodbye, but you all will get to see us again. For you it's not goodbye, not finally." Rose said.  
"We have to go. I'm going to set the TARDIS to self-destruct, making the universe revitalize and last longer. We die together, in the blast."  
"Goodbye."

The TARDIS hovered at the year 100 trillion, right at the end of the universe. The self-destruct was finished, and started.  
"One minute to self-destruction."  
"Rose, I have to say," the Doctor grinned, "it was the best."  
"Better than anything I ever imagined." She returned his sentiments.  
"Whatever comes next, I know we'll be together." He said.  
"I love you, and you me, and here at the end, nothing can separate us. Not even death. I believe that. And I know you do." Rose said.  
"That's all that needs to be said." The Doctor whispered.  
They both glowed orange, deeper a colour than from any regeneration either had ever begun. In each others' arms, they began to burn away. One last kiss brought them together at the end.  
"Three, two, one..."  
The TARDIS exploded, and the Doctor and Rose were at peace, at last. Together.


End file.
